Revealed: Top nationalities looking to buy Dubai properties

Dubai’s real estate continues to attract investors and the latest data show which are the most eager buyers

Image Credit: Pankaj Sharma/Gulf News archive

Cleofe Maceda, Senior Web Reporter

Dubai: Wealthy foreign investors have been pouring billions of dirhams into Dubai’s real estate, snapping up apartments that can be rented out for profit or held as investments, and it looks like the trend will continue.

Residents from overseas markets, particularly from India, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States and Pakistan are currently the top potential buyers of properties in Dubai. These likely investors are either on the lookout for units in more mature areas or in recently launched, up-and-coming communities.

These are the latest trends revealed by real estate platform dubizzle, which has tracked the activity of foreign users on its site. It found that residents from India, Saudi Arabia, United Kingdom, United States and Pakistan are currently shopping for a new piece of property to buy in Dubai.

As of the month of August, Indians topped the list of most eager buyers, representing 19 per cent of the searches for property for sale, followed by Saudis (16 per cent), Brits (15 per cent), Americans (13 per cent) and Pakistanis (10 per cent).

Properties in Dubai continue to gain growing interest from buyers, both locally and abroad. In August alone, some Dh2.7 billion worth of homes were snapped up in Dubai, with nearly half of them (40 per cent) located in Dubai Marina and Downtown Dubai.

According to a JLL report, the total value of transactions of existing residential properties increased over 2017, with sales year-to-date in August exceeding Dh13.7 billion, up 28 per cent year-on-year.

Top nationalities looking to buy property

Source: dubizzle

Search data also showed that potential buyers from other countries, such as Ireland, Egypt and Jordan are showing interest to invest in the local property market, with around 8 per cent, 6 per cent and 3 per cent of the visits, respectively. Interested buyers from Kuwait registered around 2.4 per cent of visits, followed by Germany.

There’s also been a notable interest from residents in the UAE and a review of local searches for property for sale showed that UAE nationals, Lebanese and Chinese are looking to buy as well.

The trend coincides with the data supplied by the Dubai Land Department, which recently reported that buyers from India, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, UK, Egypt, Jordan, China, Lebanon and US had ploughed Dh151 billion into Dubai realty over an 18-month period.

While UAE nationals emerged as the biggest spenders, with Dh37.4 billion worth of investments, Indian and Pakistani nationals spent more than Dh27 billion in Dubai real estate, while those from Saudi Arabia snapped up properties worth Dh12 billion. Buyers from Jordan and Egypt also spent at least Dh4 billion.